Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 49% of U.S. towns · #7 of 41 in Alaska. What drives it
Most of Nome was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1982. 5 places in town are on the National Register, among them 2 National Historic Landmarks and a historic district. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1950 on, and the census since 1900.
Nome dates its founding to 1898 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1900.
More historic than 49% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Nome is more historic than 49% of U.S. towns, #7 of 41 in Alaska. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
Alaska towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Alaska town has 3.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Nome’s 13.7 sits above most of its state (81% of Alaska towns have fewer) while its 5 listings outnumber those of 70% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1900 and 1920, then grew 4-fold.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Nome’s Wikipedia page.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. 2 are National Historic Landmarks, the highest tier.
★ Landmark
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
From Wikipedia’s history of Nome.
Inupiat hunted for game on the west coast of Alaska from prehistoric times. There is recent archeological evidence to suggest that there was an Inupiat settlement at Nome, known in Inupiat as Sitnasuak, before the discovery of gold.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Nome, cut from the printed page as they were published.
When in Washington in the winter of 1899, 1 became interested in Cape Nome. I met there an able young attorney from the Pacific coast, who among the first had gone to Nome, where he had practised his profession with great success and secured interests in some promising
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
ager. Another, with whom I had attended law school, and whom I had never seen or thought of since, had come to Nome in the first rush from Seattle, and now, situated in Easy Street, was one of the leaders of the Nome bar. The negro Pullman-car porter, whom we had last seen at San Antonio, Texas, on our way
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveLarge group of men standing on beach with luggage, Nome, 1898
Born herePaul Thiry is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereDonald Olson is born here
Born hereNeal Foster is born hereOne decade in the archive so far: the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1898Large group of men standing on beach with luggage, No…
1898Miners working on the Nome Spit, 1898
c. 1899Boats and girl near Snake River in Nome, Alaska, ca. …
c. 1899Display of trophy walrus heads on side of boat, Nome,…
c. 1899Display of trophy walrus heads on side of boat, Nome,…
c. 1899Eskimo woman carrying baby on her back on beach, poss…The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Nome.
1950Nome sheet · 1:250,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Nome.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Nome’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nome’s post office has been open since 1899.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
In 1898, according to Wikidata. Nome’s post office opened in 1899, and the census of 1900 counted 12,488 people here.
Nome is more historic than 49% of U.S. towns, #7 of 41 in Alaska. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
5 listings, 2 of them National Historic Landmarks: 2 buildings, 1 historic district, the Cape Nome Mining District Discovery Sites,, 1 site, and 1 structure.
6% of Nome’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.0 points), against a typical 0.3% for an Alaska town; the median home was built in 1982.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
